The Level 3 Leader
Understand the 3 levels of leadership starting with the Level 3 leader, aka, The Owner. Find out how to excel at this level and how to reach the next level of leadership.
The level 3 leader is also known as ‘The Owner’. At this level, the primary goal is to expand the value you have created into other markets, products or initiatives.
The Level 3 Leader
The Owner
As a Level 3 leader, your primary goal is fulfillment. Fulfillment entails extracting or expanding the value that has already been produced into other avenues, thereby fulfilling the owner’s higher aspirations and goals.
Level 3 Leaders ask:
How can I leverage my own and others’ assets and efforts to expand my results and assume new forms?
Level 3 Leaders may struggle with:
Separating themselves from the business
Finding new opportunities for expansion and evolution
Clarifying their values and purpose
Defining their leadership legacy
The Level 1 Leader
Understand the 3 levels of leadership starting with the Level 1 leader, aka, The Employee. Find out how to excel at this level and how to reach the next level of leadership.
The level 1 leader is also known as ‘The Employee’. At this level, the primary goal is to develop skills, knowledge and experience that sets you apart from others and allows you to establish a unique brand for yourself.
The Level 1 Leader
The Employee
As a Level 1 leader, your primary goal is competence. Competence is the first step on the path to becoming a transformational leader.
Level 1 Leaders ask:
How do I make myself known for a particular set of skills, body of knowledge or level of experience?
Level 1 Leaders may struggle with:
Being visible in the team or organization
Getting the right assignments, jobs or training to develop their hard and soft skills
Changing from one skillset, role or industry to another
How To Go From Ugly Duckling Leader To Swan
This one thing helps marginalized leaders go from ugly duckling to confident, culture-conscious leader. Learn to use your ‘ugly’ as your strategic advantage and go from unlikely leader to leadership role model.
How Do Ugly Duckling Leaders Realize That They’re Swans?
Since ugly duckling leaders are getting negative feedback about their unique traits and being overlooked for leadership roles, how do they find out that they’re not ugly ducklings after all?
In order to recognize that they’re really a swan that’s being mislabeled, they will need an accurate mirror.
What Is An Accurate Mirror?
Accurate mirrors come in many forms.
Depending on which type of accurate mirror you choose, it may not only help you see yourself better, it can also help you find your flock and learn how to fly.
Types of Accurate Mirrors
Mentorship
Sponsorship
Leadership development programs
Better job / culture fit (i.e., joining the right flock)
Peer support communities (i.e., finding fellow swans)
Role models
Telling your story
Most of the accurate mirrors listed here require another person or group. There's only one that you can do entirely on your own: tell your story.
When you start to share your story and experiences as an ugly duckling leader, it can not only help you recognize your own leadership abilities, it can become a beacon for other ugly duckling leaders who are looking to be seen as the swans they are by a flock they can call their own.
Are you a BIPOC, LGBTQ or neurodivergent leader?
Tired of being overlooked for leadership opportunities because you don’t ‘fit the mold’?
Ready to go to the next level of leadership, but lack the confidence or support to get there?
Want to create your own brand of leadership that celebrates differences versus demanding that every leader look and act the same?
The Unlikely Leader Mini-Course is for you!
Start embracing your differences instead of hiding them. Connect with other like-minded leaders in a virtual community. Develop your skills in the 4 leadership disciplines.
As a Bonus, you’ll get 1-month Free membership to Masterplan University - a leadership learning community for culture-conscious leaders.
The 3 Contrasting Traits of Ugly Duckling Leaders
These 3 traits of marginalized leaders are both challenges to overcome and opportunities to make your mark. Learn to use your ‘ugly’ as your strategic advantage and go from unlikely leader to leadership role model.
What is an ugly duckling leader?
Ugly duckling leaders are those leaders who are usually overlooked for leadership because they don’t fit the typical leadership mold, these leaders often come from historically marginalized groups, such as: BIPOC, LGTBQ, and neurodivergent communities.
Ugly duckling leaders often experience the following challenges or obstacles on their leadership journeys:
Being blocked or held back by conventional leadership definitions
Assumed to have few leadership qualities and / or little desire to be a leader,
Struggling to conform to an ideal leadership image or personality type
Mistaking their natural tendencies, talents or behaviors as weaknesses.
Ironically, ugly duckling leaders often have and demonstrate traits of high-performing leaders.
3 contrasting Traits of Ugly Duckling Leaders
Trait #1: high-performing misfits
Ugly duckling leaders often experience marginalization, but remain high performers.
Trait #2: Culture clashers
Ugly duckling leaders tend to be at odds with the culture of the organization that they're in, but they're also role models of alternatives to that culture.
Trait #3: Aloof Ambassadors
Ugly duckling leaders often get charged with being aloof, but they usually have no problem speaking up for others.
Do any of these sound like you? Keep reading to find out how to make the transition from ugly duckling leader to swan.
Are You An Ugly Duckling Leader?
Feeling marginalized or overlooked because you’re not the one-size-fits-all leadership type? You might be an ugly duckling leader. Learn to use your ‘ugly’ as your strategic advantage and go from unlikely leader to leadership role model.
The Story of the Ugly Duckling
There once was an ugly duckling. She knew she was an ugly duckling because everyone said so. ‘Too big!’, they quacked. ‘Too much. Too different.’ She was teased, laughed at, and bit.
There once was an ugly duckling...
Ugly duckling leaders are often overlooked for leadership because they don’t fit a one-size-fits-all image or idea of leadership.
One day, the ugly duckling hears a sound from above. She looks up and sees a formation of elegant swans flying overhead. Their beauty and movements make a lasting impact on her. If only she could be like them.
If only she could be like them…
Ugly duckling leaders usually identify with and exhibit the role model behaviors of other leaders and high-performers
The ugly duckling runs away, going from place to place seeking shelter, but each time she is chased out. Tired and bruised from ill treatment, she spies a flock of the strange and elegant creatures floating on a lake. She thinks to herself, well, at least if I'm going to be beat up, I'd rather be beat up by someone I admire, and decides to throw herself at their mercy.
The ugly duckling goes from place to place seeking shelter…
Ugly duckling leaders may try switching roles, teams or organizations in search of a better cultural fit.
To her surprise, The elegant swans don't attack her. Instead, they embrace her as one of their own.
They embrace her as one of their own…
It make take some time, but once the ugly leading finds their ‘flock’, they grow in confidence, visibility and influence.
What is an ugly duckling leader?
Ugly duckling leaders are those leaders who are often overlooked for leadership because they don’t fit the typical leadership mold, but they’re also high-performers who demonstrate leadership ability.
Ugly duckling leaders often come from historically marginalized groups, such as: BIPOC, LGTBQ, and neurodivergent communities.
Keep reading to find out if you have any or all of the 3 contrasting traits of Ugly Duckling Leaders.
Story As Strategy: Set Your Rhythm
Make planning and measurement more regular occurrences.
Part 3 of the Strategic Story Masterplan is the Journey- aka, Set Your Rhythm.
In a story, the journey is the path that the Main Character takes to go from the start of the story to happily ever after. The journey involves the decisions the Main Character makes and the resulting outcomes. The Main Character learns and grows by completing the journey.
For strategy, rhythm refers to operating rhythm, i.e., the methods, habits, routines and protocols that the Main Character (the project, team, or organization) employs to go from where it is today to where it envisions itself at the completion of the strategy. The rhythm encompasses how objectives & goals are set, how how decisions are made and how progress, learning and growth are measured and communicated.
The Journey - Set Your Rhythm
What
Set annual, quarterly and monthly planning and measurement routines. Stay focused on the end goal while responding and adapting to what’s happening now.
Why
Make planning and measurement more regular occurrences. Respond to changes in priority. Reflect the most current reality of the progress you’ve made.
When
Annual and quarterly strategic planning. Monthly and weekly task planning and measurement.
The Strategic Story Masterplan Framework
The Strategic Story Masterplan is my own story-based framework for defining or refining strategy or a strategic initiative for a team, product or organization.
As a framework, it is meant to serve as a guide. A collection of parts that can be used individually or in any combination that make sense for your situation.
Subscribe to my Youtube Channel to learn how to
Tell Your Story, Set Your Operating Rhythm and Establish Your Systems.
Story As Strategy: Establish Your Systems
If you’re going to grow, you’ll need the right systems.
Part 4 of the Strategic Story Masterplan is Support - aka, Establish Your Systems.
Systems are the tools, applications and platforms that help automate your operating rhythm so that they are more efficient, more accurate and less costly. Systems are what allow for scaling vs. growth.
Systems are also the relationships and networks you belong to that allow you to multiply your results without multiplying your efforts.
Support - Establish Your Systems
What
Select the tools and templates that help you standardize and automate your annual, quarterly and monthly routines and daily operations
Define and prioritize the relationships and activities that will expand your reach or multiply your efforts.
Why
If you’re going to grow, you’ll need ‘just right’ systems that will allow you to do more, better, faster and for less cost.
If you’re going to grow, you’ll need the support of ‘just right’ people to amplify your message and efforts.
When
Annually. Once selected, your systems should be assessed or upgraded at least once a year.
The Strategic Story Masterplan Framework
The Strategic Story Masterplan is my own story-based framework for defining or refining strategy or a strategic initiative for a team, product or organization.
As a framework, it is meant to serve as a guide. A collection of parts that can be used individually or in any combination that make sense for your situation.
Subscribe to my Youtube Channel to learn how to
Tell Your Story, Set Your Operating Rhythm and Establish Your Systems.
Why Traditional Strategic Planning Doesn’t Work
You and your team have just finished setting your strategic plan. A few months into the year… everything changes.
Why Traditional Strategic Planning Doesn’t Work
You and your team have just finished setting your strategic plan. After several days of workshops and breakout sessions, you’ve come up with the goals and initiatives that you want to focus on for the next year or more. You feel good about the direction you’ve chosen to take and the clarity you and your team have after coming up with a strategy together.
A few months into the year… everything changes.
The operating budget you thought you would get was significantly less than expected. You also found out that you’ll need to upgrade all of your laptops and office applications to comply with a new federal policy before the end of the year. You have a surge of new clients that you didn’t anticipate, but you’re also spending a lot on adding new resources to meet the extra demand.
The strategic plans and projects that you just decided on just a few weeks earlier suddenly seem unimportant. There are more pressing issues to deal with. The projects are put on hold or completely abandoned. They may or may not be reconsidered at the next strategic planning session - the following year.
why Story makes an ideal framework for defining (and redefining) strategy
4 Reasons Story Makes Sense for Defining Strategy
It’s engaging, emotionally evocative, and flexible enough to keep up with the changing conditions that often require continual adjustments to strategy.
A story lends itself to being edited and revised while still progressing toward a pre-determined outcome. As external and internal circumstances change, a story-based strategy allows the ‘what’ of the strategy to remain constant and the ‘how’ of the strategy to unfold one chapter at a time.
Organizations and teams who adopt a story-based planning framework create an environment that encourages rapid learning, adaptation and resilience.
Storytelling invites more input and participation from all levels into strategic planning and decision-making.
The Strategic Story Masterplan Framework
The Strategic Story Masterplan is my own story-based framework for defining or refining strategy or a strategic initiative for a team, product or organization.
As a framework, it is meant to serve as a guide. A collection of parts that can be used individually or in any combination that make sense for your situation.
define your main character
map your motivation
set your rhythm
establish your systems
Subscribe to my Youtube Channel to learn how to
Tell Your Story, Set Your Operating Rhythm and Establish Your Systems.
Story As Strategy: Map Your Motivation
Get to know your audience better, so you can better deliver what they need.
Part 2 of the Strategic Story Masterplan is Map Your Motivation.
In a story, the Motivation is what drives the Main Character to action. It is the reason that compels the Main Character to go on a Journey of change and growth.
For a strategy, the Motivation is what drives the Main Character of the strategy (i.e., the team, the project or program, the organization) to pursue its goals, objectives and plans. It is what inspires the Main Character to accomplish its happily ever after, or strategic vision.
Map Your Motivation
What
Identify your 3 motivations by getting to know your audience, your purpose and your role models.
Why
Get to know your audience better, so you can better deliver what they need. Get more clarity about your purpose, so your your strategic decisions and projects are more aligned. Identify your role models, so you’ll know the standards and best practices you should adopt.
When
Quarterly. Create once. Then review and refine at least 3 times a year.
Subscribe to my Youtube Channel to learn how to
Tell Your Story, Set Your Operating Rhythm and Establish Your Systems.
The Power in Creating Your Own Rhythm + Systems
When you’re surrounded by the chaos and inconsistency of dysfunctional systems and rhythms, it may seem as though you are completely at their mercy. But in most cases, you can still make sense of the madness.
Systems are everywhere.
And by systems I mean complex and coordinated networks of people, processes and technology that were created to repeatedly and consistently deliver a defined outcome or end result.
We’ve all had the experience of having to deal with a dysfunctional system. When a system is dysfunctional, nothing gets done when or how it’s supposed to be done. You can’t rely on the system’s output or even trust that there will be an output.
The same goes for rhythm. Almost every process has an established rhythm that it moves by. When processes (or the people who run them) are out of rhythm, then there’s no clarity on when things will happen or how often. Inconsistency abounds.
If you don’t create your own system, one will be provided for you.
When you’re surrounded by the chaos and inconsistency of dysfunctional systems and rhythms, it may seem as though you are completely at their mercy. There’s nothing you can do to change such huge and broken systems, so you may as well just give into them.
In some cases, this may be true. But in most cases, you can still make sense of the madness.
While you may not be able to change the huge, dysfunctional systems and rhythms of the organization-at-large, you still have the ability to create and influence the rhythms and systems that functionally support your team’s needs and values. This is especially important to remember when you’re a leader of a high-performing team that’s embedded within a dysfunctional organization.
I often say that the team is the smallest unit of organizational culture. The most tangible way that is proven is in the team habits, behaviors, tools and practices (aka, rhythms and systems) that they use to accomplish their objectives and goals.
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to learn how to create an Operating Rhythm & Supporting Systems for your team.
Story As Strategy: Define Your Main Character
Before you can figure out where you’re going, you have to understand who you are and where you’ve come from.
Part 1 of the Strategic Story Masterplan is Define Your Main Character.
The Main Character of your strategic story is the individual or group that will define, prioritize and accomplish the objectives and outcomes to achieve your happily ever after, or, strategic vision.
Understanding your Main Character’s backstory and identity is an essential first step to defining a strategy that aligns with your values, strengths and capabilities.
Define Your Main Character
What
Assess yourself, your team, organization or product to define what makes you unique and why you do what you do.
Why
Before you can figure out where you’re going, you have to understand who you are and where you’ve come from. When you know your strengths and have a clear sense of your identity and values, you’re in a better position to define a future vision that is aligned with them & communicate it clearly to your team, customers and stakeholders.
When
Annually. Create once. Then review and refine at least once a year.
The Strategic Story Masterplan Framework
The Strategic Story Masterplan is my own story-based framework for defining or refining strategy or a strategic initiative for a team, product or organization.
As a framework, it is meant to serve as a guide. A collection of parts that can be used individually or in any combination that is relevant for your planning scenario.
Subscribe to my Youtube Channel to learn how to
Tell Your Story, Set Your Operating Rhythm and Establish Your Systems.
Your Story is Your Strategy
For a writer, a story is a constant work-in-progress. As a leader, your organization and its strategic initiatives are continual works-in-progress. There are any number of decisions that can be made for any number of reasons, each of which will lead to a different branch in your strategic story and a different variation of the story’s ending.
Most stories are essentially the same.
They follow a similar pattern that makes it easier for us to relate to them.
A main character has a destiny, a happily ever after they must get to. In getting to that happily ever after, they make plans that often go awry and lead them into adventure and occasional setbacks.
They meet all sorts of interesting characters along the way, some who even join them for the rest of the journey. FInally, the main character arrives at the story’s end. Not exactly in the happily ever after they’d hoped for, but having learned and grown along the way and in a much better place than they were at the start of the story.
Doesn’t that sound a lot like how your last strategic program or major initiative turned out? Does it not describe the constant daily adventures and setbacks of trying to achieve your organization’s mission and goals?
For a writer, a story is a constant work-in-progress. As a leader, your organization and its strategic initiatives are continual works-in-progress. There are any number of decisions that can be made for any number of reasons, each of which will lead to a different branch in your strategic story and a different variation of the story’s ending.
How do you make these decisions quickly and in a way that shows the ever-evolving narrative of your strategy, but still leads to a satisfying (if not expected) ending?
Why Story Makes Sense for communicating Strategy
Unlike traditional communication, story-based communication lends itself to communicating strategy. Traditional communication tends to center more on the sender of the message and what they want to communicate. There is little to no room for interpretation.
This makes it more suitable for directives and instructions.
Storytelling is more audience-centered. It focuses on what the receiver will get out of the story and allows the receiver to participate in interpreting the story’s meaning to them.
As strategy is constantly evolving, there is a need for a communication style or approach that is similarly evolutionary. Like a story, a strategy is meant to inspire those who receive it to own it for themselves, to participate in bringing the strategy to life.
Terrence Gargiulo, former Chief Storyteller at Accenture, highlights the differences between traditional and story-based communication. His findings are illustrated in the following table.
“Like a story, a strategy is meant to inspire those who receive it to own it for themselves, to participate in bringing the strategy to life. ”
Ways to Bring A Story-Based Approach to Communicating Your Strategy Internally
Share behind-the-scenes of strategic planning sessions
Create low- or no-text visualizations of strategy / key initiatives
Publish strategy updates & team stories on internal social platforms
Invite strategy feedback / comments
Hold town halls to share stories / questions about strategy & strategic initiatives
Encourage team storytelling rituals on strategic initiatives
Common Growing Pains for Leaders
There will come a point in your leadership journey or in your team’s journey where you recognize that what got you to the current level of success will not get you to the next level of success or growth that you desire.
There will come a point in your leadership journey where you recognize that what got you to the current level of success will not get you to the next level of success or growth that you desire.
In order to ‘level up’, you’ll need to take a long, hard look at the habits, behaviors and mindsets that you have developed, and determine which ones are blocking you from achieving the next level of growth.
The longer you delay or put off that process, the more growing pains you are likely to feel.
Here are some of the most common growing pains I’ve experienced and that I’ve seen my clients experience on their journeys to growth and change.
Common Leadership Growing Pains
Lacking a clear leadership vision that articulates your perspective as a leader
Feeling stalled in your career or business, but not sure how to start the next chapter
Not focused on performance management or unsure of how to help your team members learn and grow
Unable to identify or groom emerging leaders on your team
How many of these growing pains are you experiencing?
IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR FUTURE
CHANGE YOUR STORY.
Create A Strategic Story To Map Your Future In Times of Growth & Change
